I’ve been using Gmail for a while and decided to move to G Suite when I set up my business. You get additional functions with G Suite like business email, video conferencing and extra cloud storage, but essentially the inbox works the same way.
I thought I would share some of my favourite functions, in case you are new to Gmail or would like to know how to make your inbox more efficient.
NB: I don’t work for Google or earn a commission :-)
Organising your inbox
Gmail allows you to organise your emails into categories, so that similar emails are grouped together. The categories are shown as tabs along the top of your inbox.
Personally, I prefer everything under one roof so only use my primary inbox. I tried using the categories, but it felt like I was checking multiple inboxes. However, you may find this approach works for you if you have a particularly high volume of emails.
To add or remove a category; In the top right click Settings (the cog icon), click the Inbox tab. Select the Inbox type ‘default’. In the Categories section, check the boxes of the tabs you want to show. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom to save your changes.
Search function
The search function found at the top of the page in Gmail is great, it makes it so fast and easy to find an email. You can type a person’s name, a company name, a subject or keyword that might be in the email and hey presto, Gmail brings up a list of all emails containing that word! So no more trying to remember when you might have sent an email, or struggling to remember an email address.
Conversation view
If you are having an email conversation, this helpful function will group all the emails together. This saves having to scroll through your inbox looking for replies. To enable it, go to Settings (the cog icon top right), and select the General tab. Conversation view is about halfway down the page, set it to 'conversation view on'.
Undo send
I've saved the best till last. If you’ve forgotten to copy someone in an email or attach a document, being able to recall it is very handy. I have it set so I have 20 seconds to change my mind and stop the email being sent. To enable it, go to Settings (the cog icon top right), and select the General tab. Undo Send is about halfway down the page, set it to delay sending by your preferred number of seconds.
I hope you’ve found this useful, thanks for reading.
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